Persuasion
Books Are Nice Week Fortnight Month Really Long Time continues with the Editrix’s favorite Austen novel, Persuasion. We could choose no other passage than the one that gave us goosebumps when we first read it, and still does. We liked Jane Austen when we read it, but this made us an everlasting fangirl.
“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W.
“I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.”
Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from.
You can say that again! Add your favorite quote from the novel; use the Molland’s e-text if you are so inclined.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:59 am
That is a mighty fine letter. Gave me goosebumps.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Oh Persuasion. So good. It is definitely my favorite Jane Austen novel as well; it is the most heartbreaking and yet the most satisfying. I read it whenever I really need to cheer up.
What a great letter. And what a great blog this is! I’m so excited I found it. I’m glad I managed to not miss the Persuasion edition of Books are Nice week.
I would have to choose the conversation that precipitates the letter. Anne has shown herself to be more of a woman of action than Wentworth thought she was already, and now she wins him over with her words, albeit unknowingly. And, she demonstrates how intelligent and feeling she is. I’m sorry; it’s a little long. But you have to have the whole thing! I don’t know how to make the quotation box.
“‘Look here,’ said he, unfolding a parcel in his hand, and displaying a small miniature painting, ‘do you know who that is?’
‘Certainly: Captain Benwick.’
‘Yes, and you may guess who it is for. But,’ (in a deep tone,) ‘it was not done for her. Miss Elliot, do you remember our walking together at Lyme, and grieving for him? I little thought then–but no matter. This was drawn at the Cape. He met wit a clever young German artist at the Cape, and in compliance with a promise to my poor sister, sat to him, and was bringing it home for her; and I have now the charge of getting it properly set for another! It was a commission to me! But who else was there to employ? I hope I can allow for him. I am not sorry, indeed, to make it over to another. He undertakes it;’ (looking towards Captain Wentworth,) ‘he is writing about it now.’ And with a quivering lip he wound up the whole by adding, “Poor Fanny! she would not have forgotten him so soon!’
‘No,’ replied Anne, in a low, feeling voice. ‘That I can easily believe.’
‘It was not in her nature. She doted on him.’
‘It would not be the nature of any woman who truly loved.’
Captain Harville smiled, as much as to say, ‘Do you claim that for your sex?’ and she answered the question, smiling also, ‘Yes. We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You are forced on exertion. You have always a profession, pursuits, business of some sort or other, to take you back into the world immediately, and continual occupation and change soon weaken impressions.’
‘Granting your assertion that the world does all this so soon for men (which, however, I do not think I shall grant), it does not apply to Benwick. He has not been forced upon any exertion. The peace turned him on shore at the very moment, and he has been living with us, in our little family circle, ever since.’
‘True,’ said Anne, ‘very true; I did not recollect; but what shall we say now, Captain Harville? If the change be not from outward circumstances, it must be from within; it must be nature, man’s nature, which has done the business for Captain Benwick.’
‘No, no, it is not man’s nature. I will not allow it to be more man’s nature than woman’s to be inconstant and forget those they do love, or have loved. I believe the reverse. I believe in a true analogy between our bodily frames and our mental; and that as our bodies are the strongest, so are our feelings; capable of bearing most rough usage, and riding out the heaviest weather.’
‘Your feelings may be the strongest,’ replied Anne, “but the same spirit of analogy will authorise me to assert that ours are the most tender. Man is more robust than woman, but he is not longer lived; which exactly explains my view of the nature of their attachments. Nay, it would be too hard upon you, if it were otherwise. You have difficulties, and privations, and dangers enough to struggle with. You are always labouring and toiling, exposed to every risk and hardship. Your home, country, friends, all quitted. Neither time, nor health, nor life, to be called your own. It would be hard, indeed’ (with a faltering voice), ‘if woman’s feelings were to be added to all this.’
‘We shall never agree upon this question,’…’No man and woman, would, probably. But let me observe that all histories are against you–all stories, prose and verse. If I had such a memory as Benwick, I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument, and I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.’
‘Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.’
‘But how shall we prove anything?’
‘We never shall. We never can expect to prove any thing upon such a point. It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof. We each begin, probably, with a little bias towards our own sex; and upon that bias build every circumstance in favour of it which has occurred within our own circle; many of which circumstances (perhaps those very cases which strike us the most) may be precisely such as cannot be brought forward without betraying a confidence, or in some respect saying what should not be said.’
‘Ah!’ cried Captain Harville, in a tone of strong feeling, ‘if I could but make you comprehend what a man suffers when he takes a last look at his wife and children, and watches the boat that he has sent them off in, as long as it is in sight, and then turns away and says, ‘God knows whether we ever meet again!’ And then, if I could convey to you the glow of his soul when he does see them again; when, coming back after a twelvemonth’s absence, perhaps, and obliged to put into another port, he calculates how soon it be possible to get them there, pretending to deceive himself, and saying, ‘They cannot be here till such a day,’ but all the while hoping for them twelve hours sooner, and seeing them arrive at last, as if Heaven had given them wings, by many hours sooner still! If I could explain to you all this, and all that a man can bear and do, and glories to do, for the sake of these treasures of his existence! I speak, you know, only of such men as have hearts!’ pressing his own with emotion.
‘Oh!’ cried Anne eagerly, ‘I hope I do justice to all that is felt by you, and by those who resemble you. God forbid that I should undervalue the warm and faithful feelings of any of my fellow-creatures! I should deserve utter contempt if I dared to suppose that true attachment and constancy were known only by woman. No, I believe you capable of everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as–if I may be allowed the expression–so long as you have an object. I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one; you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.’
She could not immediately have uttered another sentence; her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed” (Austen).
August 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am
It’s a small thing but after Louisa is injured and they’re trying to arrange for her care, Wentworth says:
And this is the moment that he turns around, and I love that it’s because she’s the most capable, the most sensible. Louisa - poor thing - has shown herself to be still too immature, and Wentworth accepts now that Anne has become an extraordinary woman.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I love Persuaion. I also love audiobooks; and here is one I can recommend - it’s glorianna’s recording of Persuasion for the public domain (=FREE!!) audio book download site.
http://librivox.org/persuasion-by-jane-austen-2/
And, yes, all the other books are available for download there as well.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I cried the first time I read that letter, and I cry every. single. time. I read it again. Persuasion is my favorite of her books, too. In my opinion, it’s THE most perfect novel ever written. I re-read it every autumn because it feels like an autumn book to me.
My favorite character next to Anne is Mrs Croft. I have always thought that Mrs Croft and Jane Austen have a lot in common - namely, being rather ahead of their time in thinking and in action - Jane wrote; Mrs Croft traveled:
“What a great traveller you must have been, ma’am!” said Mrs. Musgrove to Mrs. Croft.
“Pretty well, ma’am in the fifteen years of my marriage; though many women have done more. I have crossed the Atlantic four times, and have been once to the East Indies, and back again, and only once; besides being in different places about home: Cork, and Lisbon, and Gibraltar. But I never went beyond the Streights, and never was in the West Indies. We do not call Bermuda or Bahama, you know, the West Indies.”
Mrs. Musgrove had not a word to say in dissent; she could not accuse herself of having ever called them anything in the whole course of her life.
“And I do assure you, ma’am,” pursued Mrs. Croft, “that nothing can exceed the accommodations of a man-of-war; I speak, you know, of the higher rates. When you come to a frigate, of course, you are more confined; though any reasonable woman may be perfectly happy in one of them; and I can safely say, that the happiest part of my life has been spent on board a ship. While we were together, you know, there was nothing to be feared. Thank God! I have always been blessed with excellent health, and no climate disagrees with me. A little disordered always the first twenty-four hours of going to sea, but never knew what sickness was afterwards. The only time I ever really suffered in body or mind, the only time that I ever fancied myself unwell, or had any ideas of danger, was the winter that I passed by myself at Deal, when the Admiral (Captain Croft then) was in the North Seas. I lived in perpetual fright at that time, and had all manner of imaginary complaints from not knowing what to do with myself, or when I should hear from him next; but as long as we could be together, nothing ever ailed me, and I never met with the smallest inconvenience.”
August 15th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Persuasion is my favorite of Jane Austen’s books.Who could anyone not like the Croft’s? the Crofts and Gardners are her best examples of married couples.
Sir Walter and his eldest daughter make me laugh!,such snobs!
August 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Oh the letter. THE letter. THE benchmark for all love letters forevermore. What more can I say. I’m just glad Austen decided to change the ending. I can’t imagine Persuasion without it.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I don’t see Jane as a romance writer but I regard the Letter the most romantic moment in Austen; ‘You pierce my soul. I am half-agony, half-hope.’… could any woman not be overcome ? …I also love Anne’s debate with Harville when he refers to literture for evidence of women’s fickleness. Anne readily takes this up; ‘Men have had every advantage of us in telling thir own story.Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything’. Jane may’ve enjoyed being the one to weild the pen here.
These debates and reflections by Anne & Harville, Mrs Croft and Mrs Musgrove (ch.230 remind me of the human tide of emotion, hope, turmoil and passions.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I’m with Colleen/#2. The conversation preceding the letter is much more moving in my view. Especially the last part:
“God forbid that I should undervalue the warm and faithful feelings of any of my fellow-creatures! I should deserve utter contempt if I dared to suppose that true attachment and constancy were known only by woman. No, I believe you capable of everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as–if I may be allowed the expression–so long as you have an object. I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one; you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
So true.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I like the following section because of the words “After a moment’s pause”. I like to think that Wentworth struggled with his feelings here and was not as cold and distant as he wanted to appear:
“Mary is good-natured enough in many respects,” said she(Louisa); “but she does sometimes provoke me excessively, by her nonsense and pride–the Elliot pride. She has a great deal too much of the Elliot pride. We do so wish that Charles had married Anne instead. I suppose you know he wanted to marry Anne?”
After a moment’s pause, Captain Wentworth said–
“Do you mean that she refused him?”
“Oh! yes; certainly.”
“When did that happen?”
“I do not exactly know, for Henrietta and I were at school at the time; but I believe about a year before he married Mary. I wish she had accepted him. We should all have liked her a great deal better; and papa and mamma always think it was her great friend Lady Russell’s doing, that she did not. They think Charles might not be learned and bookish enough to please Lady Russell, and that therefore, she persuaded Anne to refuse him.”
August 15th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
And how about this one, again from Mrs. Croft, one of my very favorite lines from my (also) very favorite Austen novel:
“But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.”
What a gal!
August 16th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Oh and the conversation about Benwick’s marriage at the Concert Hall is also great. All this double meaning (, possible misunderstandings) and bubbling emotions underneath the appearently commonplace chatter:
“(…) With all my soul I wish them happy, and rejoice over every circumstance in favour of it. They have no difficulties to contend with at home, no opposition, no caprice, no delays. The Musgroves are behaving like themselves, most honourably and kindly, only anxious with true parental hearts to promote their daughter’s comfort. All this is much, very much in favour of their happiness; more than perhaps–”
He stopped. A sudden recollection seemed to occur, and to give him some taste of that emotion which was reddening Anne’s cheeks and fixing her eyes on the ground. After clearing his throat, however, he proceeded thus–
“I confess that I do think there is a disparity, too great a disparity, and in a point no less essential than mind. I regard Louisa Musgrove as a very amiable, sweet-tempered girl, and not deficient in understanding, but Benwick is something more. He is a clever man, a reading man; and I confess, that I do consider his attaching himself to her with some surprise. Had it been the effect of gratitude, had he learnt to love her, because he believed her to be preferring him, it would have been another thing. But I have no reason to suppose it so. It seems, on the contrary, to have been a perfectly spontaneous, untaught feeling on his side, and this surprises me. A man like him, in his situation! with a heart pierced, wounded, almost broken! Fanny Harville was a very superior creature, and his attachment to her was indeed attachment. A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman. He ought not; he does not.”
Either from the consciousness, however, that his friend had recovered, or from other consciousness, he went no farther; and Anne who, in spite of the agitated voice in which the latter part had been uttered, and in spite of all the various noises of the room, the almost ceaseless slam of the door, and ceaseless buzz of persons walking through, had distinguished every word, was struck, gratified, confused, and beginning to breathe very quick, and feel an hundred things in a moment. It was impossible for her to enter on such a subject; and yet, after a pause, feeling the necessity of speaking, and having not the smallest wish for a total change, she only deviated so far as to say–
“You were a good while at Lyme, I think?”
“About a fortnight. I could not leave it till Louisa’s doing well was quite ascertained. I had been too deeply concerned in the mischief to be soon at peace. It had been my doing, solely mine. She would not have been obstinate if I had not been weak. The country round Lyme is very fine. I walked and rode a great deal; and the more I saw, the more I found to admire.”
“I should very much like to see Lyme again,” said Anne.
“Indeed! I should not have supposed that you could have found anything in Lyme to inspire such a feeling. The horror and distress you were involved in, the stretch of mind, the wear of spirits! I should have thought your last impressions of Lyme must have been strong disgust.”
“The last hours were certainly very painful,” replied Anne; “but when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering, which was by no means the case at Lyme. We were only in anxiety and distress during the last two hours, and previously there had been a great deal of enjoyment. So much novelty and beauty! I have travelled so little, that every fresh place would be interesting to me; but there is real beauty at Lyme; and in short” (with a faint blush at some recollections), “altogether my impressions of the place are very agreeable.”
August 16th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Persuasion’s my favourite as well (not just of the Jane Austen novels, but of all the novels I’ve ever read). This letter has to be the finest piece of literature ever written. It has permanently ruined all men for me I think
for who could live up to ‘You pierce my soul…’ ?
With regards Mrs Croft (what a fantastic character!) I love how she is described at the beginning of the book:
“And a very well-spoken, genteel, shrewd lady, she seemed to be… asked more questions about the house, and terms, and taxes, than the Admiral himself, and seemed more conversant with business.”
I love how JA showed the value of sensible, intelligent women.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I love the brotherhood and camaraderie between the Navy men. Avuncular Admiral Croft, Captain Harville with more hospitality than house, poetic deep-feeling Captain Benwick, and bold manly Captain Wentworth. It all adds up to a warmth of feeling that wells up in me every time I read Persuasion.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Persuasion is not only my favorite Austen novel, it’s my favorite novel EVER. It’s beautiful. It makes me laugh. It makes me cry. I sigh with satisfaction each and every time I read it. I collect editions of Persuasion just because I love to read the various editorial comments from academics who love it as much as I do.
The Letter makes me cry.
This makes me laugh:
That passage epitomizes what I love about Austen. Dignified and ladylike, yet snarky.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Yes, of course what you all said, but I have always had a soft spot for these lines toward the end of the book:
“Anne . . . had no other alloy to the happiness of her prospects than what arose from the consciousness of having no relations to bestow on him which a man of sense could value. There she felt her own inferiority very keenly. The disproportion in their fortune was nothing; it did not give her a moment’s regret; but to have no family to receive and estimate him properly, nothing of respectability, of harmony, of good will to offer in return for all the worth and all the prompt welcome which met her in his brothers and sisters, was a source of as lively pain as her mind could well be sensible of under circumstances of otherwise strong felicity.”
August 19th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Well said,Well Quoted,ladies!
August 24th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I actually just read this book for the first time after watching the most recent adaptation of it on PBS (it’s the only Austen book I’ve read so far). I loved the whole story, and I know I’m being generic here but these are my two favorite lines of the novel:
“A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman. He ought not; he does not.”
“All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
Although I admit that I love the first one because it reminds me of my favorite scene from the recent version I watched on PBS.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:22 am
Stefanie, welcome to Austen in general and to Persuasion in particular. It’s a truly beautiful book — gut-wrenching and laugh-out-louding at the same time.
But check out the 1995 adaptation. It’s somewhat closer to the book, even though the actor playing Wentworth isn’t as conventionally handsome as Rupert Penry-Jones is, I love him in the role and think he is very well matched with “his” Anne, played by Amanda Root.